Parsons Brinckerhoff has been selected by the Port of Long Beach to provide program management and construction management services for the $950 million replacement of the Gerald Desmond Bridge.

Groundbreaking for the new cable-stayed bridge is expected in early 2013, approximately 48 years after ground was broken for the original through-arch bridge. The existing Gerald Desmond Bridge, which connects the Port of Long Beach and the city’s downtown business district, was not designed to manage the traffic load that is carries today. The new bridge will be wider, with emergency lanes, and have a higher clearance for cargo ships.

The bridge, which is being built under a design-build contract, will be the first cable-stayed vehicular bridge in the state of California, with 200 feet of vertical clearance, 45 more than the original structure. It will feature two towers approximately 500 feet high and will be 2,000 feet long, with the main span about 1,000 feet from tower to tower. Construction will include approaches, ramps and connectors to Ocean Boulevard and the I-710 Long Beach Freeway. Once the new bridge is completed, the existing structure will be demolished.